The long-range objective of the Idaho IDeA proposal is to bring together the dispersed and multi-disciplinary Idaho biomedical researchers into a cohesive and interactive relationship. The proposed program begins with the short-term goal of providing research funding to an identified core of biomedical researchers who have moved their research projects beyond the pilot stage. This action has the purpose of improving their research competitiveness for mainstreaming into regular NIH funding avenues both by improving the scientific positions of the projects and by providing the investigators with a research career development program. The latter will bring together the core of investigators in a series of workshops which deal first with research program and time management, and overcoming impediments to research careers. A subsequent workshop will deal with issues of grantsmanship and identifying opportunities in an uncertain federal funding climate. Additionally, the participants in the program will meet regularly by a two-way microwave video link to discuss data, current important scientific developments, and continue dialog on issues raised in the workshops. This program is designed to be expandable over time by involving other investigators and investigators at different sites. It is anticipated that as the group grows, formal scientific collaborations will ensue and investigators will begin to identify themselves with break-away subgroups that will be able to manage their own research faculty development activities. The multidisciplinary research projects submitted for funding in this proposal cover the following topics: Neuroendocrinology studies on the regulation of Gonadotropin Releasing Hormone; Studies on the effects of estradiol and progesterone on the function of opioid receptors in neuronal cells; The role of calcium regulation in skeletal and cardiac muscle function and the role of calsequestrin in illness mediated by cellular calcium overload; Studies to assess whether calcium antagonists bind irreversibly to proteins; Studies on the molecular basis of regulon repression in the facultative parasite Yersinia enterocolitica; Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model to test the prediction that allele variants will have negligible effects on metabolic flux.